So the UK thinks I’m a decent songwriter… maybe borderline good. A couple of months ago I entered 7 songs in the Adult Contemporary category of the UK Songwriting Contest.  This was my first songwriting contest ever. Why so many songs? I wanted to see if there was consistency in my writing.  Well… out of a max score of 10, four of my songs got a 6 (Fairy Tale, Helen, Losing, and Quality) and the other three got a 7 (Hook Me, Miss You So, Shouldn’t it Be You).  Here’s how they explained their scoring system.

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EXPLANATION OF THE JUDGES’ SCORING

Most songs receive a score of either 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. Very few songs will receive a low score of 1 or 2 and very few will receive a high score of 8 or 9. The score of 10 is not used during the judging and is reserved for the winning song in each category.

Songs with a score of 8 or 9 are finalists and are all considered for the winning and runner up positions. All runners up have a score of 9 and these few high scoring songs are all very carefully considered for the winning position in their respective categories. The winning songs in each category receive a score of 10.

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So there you have it. I was a semi-finalist. If you’re curious, here’s a link to the winning song entitled “What Am I Supposed to Do”.

K

Kevin@KevinHaden.com is fully up and running again.  Thanks for your patience.  Also, tour dates have been updated.  I’ll be joined by Tiffany and Asuka this Saturday at UnWINEd.  Looking forward to seeing your smiling faces.

K

Kevin@KevinHaden.com is temporarily unable to receive messages.  I should have this worked out within the next couple of days and will post when it’s fixed.

Tour Dates will be updated soon with May and summer dates, I promise

K

Now that the Olympics are over I got to thinking… If singing were an Olympic event (sort of like figure skating or ice dancing… short program + long program), what would the required technical elements be?

K

I’m especially excited since it includes a show on Halloween.  Mike Clifford will be joining me again.  Look for new songs, tribute sets, and more special guests.

K

Symphony Space Marquee

Mike Clifford and I are schedule to open for Michael Friedman at Symphony Space this Thursday.  The Thalia Theater is pretty sweet so if you’ve been waiting to see me in a really good venue, here’s your chance.

K

So I finally did it.  I joined facebook.  It’s a bit overwhelming to be honest. So many people from some many different times and spaces of my life all in one place.  It’s liberating and paralyzing at the same time.

For those wondering… Yes, I will be performing at UnWINEd tomorrow night.  The lovely and talented Ms. Tiffany Chang will be there along with me to bang on things.

K

Hey all This is Carl the Webmaster checking in getting my man Kev hooked up with a slick new blog!

leave some love and let us know what yall think!!

A great big thank you to all the wonderful people I met this past week at the Listening Room in Cold Spring and the Festival of Books in New Rochelle!

No, I’m not talking about the Kirk Franklin song…

People sometimes ask me if I listen to my own music. The answer is yes. In fact, the first songs I ever wrote were quite simply songs I wanted to hear that nobody else had written yet. Sounds obvious, right? Though after meeting many composers and songwriters, I was surprised to find not a single one that felt the same. Many of them seemed to be more into the process than the end result. Most of the songwriters I met saw it as a kind of emotional release, which is seldom the case for me. Sometimes I just want to hear songs that don’t exist. I remember as a teenager running around with these sonic images in my head and at first, thinking that they were songs I had heard before. When I couldn’t find them anywhere, I realized they were actually elements from many songs I had heard before thrown together in my mind. So I started writing them down and later recording them. I just wanted to hear them outside of my head for once. Truthfully, it was kind of selfish, and to a certain extent, I remain that way.

There was a shift in my songwriting several years ago. I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but along with it came a change in my philosophy. The catalyst was that more people started to tell me how much they were affected by my performances. It was the kind of feedback that made me feel like what I was doing actually mattered to people, and that maybe I should think about promoting it and sharing it more openly. So here I am today, promoting, blogging, and feeling more driven than ever.